When a man returns to normal society after decades enclosed in a chain, it is normal that some things surprise you. May be the variety of foods available in the grocery store, or something as seemingly insignificant as the fact that public telephones have fallen out of favor (and, where there are still a local call now cost four times more than in the 70s).
A wide range of technological innovations also are to have something of a shock, especially when you see how far transformed the attitude of passersby. See them go head downtown street and not look to others is strange.
Initially, our unwary off guard thinks going to talk about themselves. Many new people … Enough to imagine working for the CIA, all of them. Only after repairs which have a machine in hand, and in his ears for ear to reinforce the isolation that already separates them from the world.
This was the experience lived by Otis Johnson, a man whose imprisonment ended last year after 44 years. In 1971, they arrested him trying to kill a policeman during a robbery-murder he admits, ensuring that the fully paid, if not in excess. At the time was 25.
Over the following decades spent a lot of time alone, and in 1998 they still had contact with the family over. It was the most cost him. He says he made sure to not feed resentments with anything or anyone else, knowing that life had to go on. The same attitude helped him in the summer of last year, when handed him his identity card, $ 40 (37.7 euros) and two bus tickets, returning it to liberty and to their fate.
To tell the truth, Johnson was not completely alone in the world. A humanitarian organization that helps former prisoners, the Fortune Society, got him a place to stay and not let him go hungry. In exchange assistance, he has to return home until nine at night. It costs you fulfill the promise. But have the desire to do something more with your life.
In particular, I would like to create a shelter for women, dream that their total lack of means and credit will make it difficult in the near future. But for those who spent almost two-thirds of his life outside of society, every day at this time is a gain day. And anyway, as noted, the essential things never change.
Johnson now told his story to AlJazeera station in the United States. It is a story that, in addition to his interest in himself, comes at an important time. Among the areas where President Barack Obama would still like to make a report at the end of its mandate, has to penal reform.
There is an increasingly widespread notion that incarceration abuse reached extremes unacceptable, and fiscally unacceptable, particularly since the 80s, when President Ronald Reagan and other politicians have taken a draconian line on the matter. Even the conservative side, now seems to be accepted that tens of thousands of people arrested for not extraordinarily serious crimes should be returned to liberdade.O problem is that this is not always easy. Sociability habits are slow to rebuild, and the context or lack thereof can be decisive.
In the case of Johnson, the absence of family causes an isolation that cost you endure. He spends his days walking the streets of New York, goes to the mosque, do tai-chi, meditate. Even with his positive attitude, it is highly likely that there are psychological issues to be addressed. If nothing else, because his days now no longer be decided by other from beginning to end.
As explained to Aljazeera a research scientist at Harvard, Marieke Liem even use public transportation or decide what buy at the grocery store can be difficult. “The arrest decide when the lights come on and when off. When someone has been inside the system most of his life, how can you expect it to work as a member of society? And make a plan “
In 1999, the prisoners were elderly 3% of total US?.; today are 10%, about a quarter of a million. The difficulties that have younger apply to them doubled or tripled. And yet their needs are largely ignored. Partly perhaps because so few are released. Authorities did not know what to do with most of them. His confusion was so great as that of Johnson, when you do not realize how pedestrians if they can steer without looking around.
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